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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to wonder why the fuss about Easter and the national trust?

295 replies

Believeitornot · 04/04/2017 09:52

Theresa May has been quoted as being "furious" about the national trust removing easter from their egg hunts. Because she's the daughter of a vicar and a NT member Hmm

Now I had a look at the national trust poster and it clearly says Easter in big letters. They've just called the activities "egg hunts" but it's very clear it's happening at Easter.

AIBU to think she's massively over reacting over a non issue and might well be reminded that Easter was originally a pagan festival

OP posts:
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JassyRadlett · 07/04/2017 19:29

you're setting up an extreme saying that I can't object to overt heavy footed Cadbury branding, and should object to any chocolate egg eating.

No, people are pointing out that there's a gap in your logic in embracing the commercialisation of Easter in the shops, all centred around the consumption of branded chocolate eggs and rabbits that has its roots in pagan celebrations, but objecting to corporate sponsorship of the Easter egg hunt at the National Trust, because it is branded.

I was at one on Wednesday. The word 'Easter' was plastered all over the place and the prize was a good-sized chocolate bunny.

I don't think anyone was confused about why there was an egg hunt...

NoLotteryWinYet · 07/04/2017 19:40

i don't see a gap in the logic. Yes, there is an existing level of commercialization, more of it doesn't make that better...

squishysquirmy · 07/04/2017 19:44

Sorry Orlantina, Blush I just shared the same link you did on the last page... whoops!

JassyRadlett · 07/04/2017 19:44

So what is it specifically about the Cadburys sponsorship that makes it differ from other Easter commercialisation of pagan traditions, and why is it detrimental?

There is an argument that promoting the 'brand' of Easter more (and don't forget it's a brand the Christian church appropriated in the first place) is benefiical in raising awareness and giving more people positive associations with Christian festivals.

NoLotteryWinYet · 07/04/2017 20:57

this was a deliberate strategy by Cadbury to make this a Cadbury egg hunt and not an Easter egg hunt. Why is it detrimental? I don't want my children in 10 years time to be telling stories about the times they went on Cadbury's egg hunts. You may prefer it, you're entitled to that, I personally, don't. I don't want to celebrate Cadbury's Sunday every year.

donadumaurier · 07/04/2017 21:11

Because the commercial Easter at this point has so little to do with Christ, it might as well be Easter of the capitalist secular variety anyway.

Once again, I highly recommend orthodoxy if you don't want to be dealing with the commercial. It's just a shame Easters fall on the same day this year, but Christmas is always separate. Stripping away the commercial is liberating.

Orlantina · 07/04/2017 21:15

I don't want to celebrate Cadbury's Sunday every year

Maybe we'll be celebrating Oestre?

Will many people still be celebrating Easter as a religious festival in 100 - 200 years time?

JassyRadlett · 07/04/2017 22:35

I don't want my children in 10 years time to be telling stories about the times they went on Cadbury's egg hunts. You may prefer it, you're entitled to that, I personally, don't. I don't want to celebrate Cadbury's Sunday every year.

How ridiculously hyperbolic. 'Easter' is plastered all over the marketing materials. The word 'Easter egg' is hardly at risk of dying out because of the way the National Trust markets its Easter activities, unless your kids' sole point of contact with Easter eggs is via the NT.

You might have some kind of logical point if Cadburys was sponsoring your local church. Is it?

Would you prefer it if the NT dropped its egg hunts altogether because it couldn't afford them? Or would you similarly be complaining about it?

Meanwhile, the egg hunt I went on had Easter plastered all over everything, and the hunt itself gave a strong Christian context to the whole deal. But I guess you'd prefer it didn't happen and wasn't promoted?

JassyRadlett · 07/04/2017 22:45

BTW, how are you coping with the Lindt Gold Bunny Hunt ?

squishysquirmy · 07/04/2017 22:45

I celebrate Cadbury's Sunday every week. Its the day before Ben and Jerry's Monday.

CrumpettyTree · 07/04/2017 22:50
Grin
OhtoblazeswithElvira · 07/04/2017 22:53

I can't believe our prime minister found time to comment on this. I read somewhere on MN (the EU referendum board?) that she could have been motivated by a personal dislike of the head of the National Trust. Not impressed!

JassyRadlett · 07/04/2017 23:10

Helen Ghosh (director general of the National Trust) was permanent secretary at the Home Office under Theresa May in 2011-12.

squishysquirmy · 07/04/2017 23:24

I have literally just seen an event on my facebook feed for "Multi secular vegan egg painting"
-Interested, anyone?

It is described as "a way for local artists to express themselves on spring bank holiday, without feeling persecuted because of religious or dietary philosophy. You are free to paint whatever you want on the eggs, as long as it doesn’t contain religious iconography"
And is also an LGBT friendly event.

Looking at the comments, I was sad to realise that it was probably a pisstake. Sad

Megatherium · 07/04/2017 23:33

Oooooh, I was shocked to the core by Lindt Golden Bunny Hunt. No mention anywhere of Easter. Surely everyone knows that the Easter bunny was directly inspired by the giant rabbit that was a central feature of the resurrection? How dare they try to airbrush that out?

AwaywiththePixies27 · 07/04/2017 23:52

Handy tip. Don't eat a Lindt rabbit in one sitting. I once greedily scoffed a small one and was as sick as a pig shortly after Blush

Toadinthehole · 08/04/2017 00:05

Being a regular churchgoer, when I heard about this my initial thought was "oh, no, how embarrassing".

And then I remembered just why a lot of Christians, myself included, can get very sensitive about stuff like this.

It's obvious that cultural references to Christianity in society are being steadily removed, and this is with the approval of a large number of the population. This is - and there is no denying it - because of the massive rejection of Christianity that has taken place across the West in the last 50 to 100 years. Christianity in the UK and other countries like it is dead in the water - leastways the traditional Christianity indigenous to those countries (I'll return to this point in a minute). That's not something any Christian can complain about. It's just life.

What really pisses me off are two things.

First, Christianity is treated as invisible, except for stuff like this. I live in NZ, probably the most irreligious country on earth. Nevertheless, an absolute majority of charitable activity, that is to say relief of poverty, hardship, homelessness, and social support of all types is provided by societies and organisations with a Christian basis - Anglican, Catholic, multi-denominatinal and many others. I have no doubt it's the same in the UK, where I expect Islam and other religions are increasingly joining in. Does that ever get reported in the media? Does it fuck. The media - which generally only reports the things people are interested in - is not interested in alleviating the distress of smelly and unlikeable people. When it comes to religion, they are only intested in gay bishops and rows about easter eggs, and in the case if Islam, terrorism. They are also interested in paedophilia, which is something that certainly does need reporting, but as is increasingly obvious, it was a crime endemic to society as a whole, not just religious organisations.

The other is when a social institution decides to utterly erase its Christian origins in the name of inclusivity. There are many organisations that have done this. It's a form of dishonesty and it leads to a lot of comment, not least on these boards along the lines of "what did Christianity do to us". Totally Pythonesque, except that most are too clueless about their own history and culture to know any responses. Associated with this is the idea that Easter is "actually pagan", ie, it's indigenous to this country in a way that Christianity is not (this normaly goes along with huge projectionism re what paganism was actually about). The truth is that next to nothing is known about pagan religion in the UK in its pure form; most of what is known comes a tiny number of records, and the remainder comes from practices that were adopted into Christianity over the course of nearly two millenia - which gives Christianity a much better claim to be the indigenous religion than something that died out largely prior to any written records.

Yet outside academic circles, the attitude is that Christianity was just some wierd thing that dead people did for a while on Sundays. Oh, and homophobia and the patriarchy.

Did I say Christianity was dead in the water? Well, in the UK, I think the traditional denominations are, that is to say Anglicanism, Catholicism, Methodism, and Presbyterianism and so on. But given the West's high immigration, the versions of Christianity being brought with them, and given their much higher birthrate I have no belief Christianity will end in the UK any time soon. It will just be a variety that most people here will dislike even more. But that's what you get if you sabotage your own version of it, which is precisely what has happened and is happening.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 08/04/2017 00:44

Nevertheless, an absolute majority of charitable activity, that is to say relief of poverty, hardship, homelessness, and social support of all types is provided by societies and organisations with a Christian basis - Anglican, Catholic, multi-denominatinal and many others. I have no doubt it's the same in the UK, where I expect Islam and other religions are increasingly joining in. Does that ever get reported in the media? Does it fuck.

Well, no, whilst I'm sure a significant proportion of charities are faith based, many, equally are not.

Kindness is not the preserve of someone following a faith.

The truth is that next to nothing is known about pagan religion in the UK in its pure form

Paganism, by it's very definition is not a religion.

Megatherium · 08/04/2017 08:07

I don't particularly care if christianity fades out, because I don't care if religion generally dies out. Nevertheless, I'm prepared to recognise that the Easter weekend is very important to people who do believe. But I really do get annoyed when things like chocolate eggs and bunnies are correlated with christianity when it is obvious that they really have little or nothing to do with it and are well known to have an entirely separate origin. When people like May try to make some sort of political/religious point like this, they just make themselves ridiculous.

ActuallyThatsSUPREMECommander · 08/04/2017 08:29

When we went on one of these so called "egg hunts" last year, the far more shocking thing was that there were no actual eggs! The DC ran round the site collecting the answers to questions to prove they'd done it, and when they got back with their forms they were rewarded with.......a chocolate bunny!

Orlantina · 08/04/2017 08:30

toadinthehole

The reality is that there are many people who do not believe Jesus was the Son of God who was sent to Earth to save mankind.

Despite Christianity being the State Religion
Despite the law saying there should be an act of Collective Worship in school of a mainly Christian nature
Despite schools teaching the Nativity at Christmas and doing plays about it
Despite the Queen attending church regularly
Despite the Head of State and state ceremonies having a Christian focus
Despite Easter and Christmas being national holidays
Despite the Prime Minister and the right wing media complaining about Christianity being minimised.
Despite Songs of Praise every weekend

Yes, despite all this, there are still many people who don't believe in Christianity.

I believe it all started when the Bible was translated into English. Then the power of the Church started to wane as people started to think for themselves and to question the power of Church and State.

OhtoblazeswithElvira · 08/04/2017 08:47

I am an atheist and I am very comfortable with many Christian values and ideas. Certainly Theresa May's general actions are not those of a practising Christian so I'm not sure what her aim was when she got involved in this.

Riversleep · 08/04/2017 08:52

I know Cadburys isn't owned by the Cadbury family anymore, but they were Quakers, who don't celebrate Easter anyway!I was brought up in a Catholic household. I agree that I wouldn't care if we lived completely secularly as a society and people could go to church or do what they wanted. But I do agree that by downplaying some of the more moderate forms of Christianity (I don't include Catholicism in that!), they are being replaced by hardline, more intolerant denominations and religions.

JassyRadlett · 08/04/2017 08:56

Did I say Christianity was dead in the water? Well, in the UK, I think the traditional denominations are, that is to say Anglicanism, Catholicism, Methodism, and Presbyterianism and so on.

Except for getting paid by the state to run state schools and evangelise through those schools, all schools being required to have daily acts of worship of a 'broadly Christian' nature, getting guaranteed seats in the legislature, having ready made platforms and extensive media coverage of their views on a wide range of issues, and having their holy days promoted by the state?

Yes. Absolutely. Marginalised, invisible, dead in the water.

The real issue is why Christian churches and the CofE in particular get such a disproportionate amount of influence given the number of people who apparently believe in the Christian god and the even smaller numbers who attend services.